For years now, when talking about comics, there is a certain feeling of boom, with more and more authors and publishers, and when the reading indexes come out, comics stand out as one of the fastest growing sectors. Is it true or is it a mirage? We took advantage of the opening day of the 42nd Comic Barcelona to talk to some prominent authors of the moment and try to unravel the entanglement.
For Carla Berrocal (Madrid, 1983), who next week brings out La tierra yerma (Reservoir Books), "rather than a boom it would be a bubble, because there is so much newness that it is unsustainable and maybe it suits us and everything". With such a profusion of titles, he believes that the quality has gone down, partly because "before the editor's job was to contribute what he believed in", and now, partly because shorter runs are made, a lot is published without making a bet clear and strong, so that, in addition, "the reader does not give the scope".
Juan Díaz Canales (Madrid, 1972) knows that he is a rare grandfather, since he can not only live from what he publishes but is also a screenwriter - his work particularly highlights the Blacksad series with Juanjo Guarnido, but also the revival of Corto Maltese with Rubén Pelejero -, but even so he suspects that "the problem is the idea of the boom, because we focus on comics and not on the endemic evil of Spanish culture, which is rarely read". However, for the reader "yes, it is a golden age, because he has many more options to choose what he wants". "I don't see a bubble, and with my trademark optimism I see an improvement, even if it is slow, there is more market and we are better off than before, not only because more is published but also because there is more recognition and more readers".
Nadia Hafid (Terrassa, 1990), author of Chacales (2022, Sapristi), now fully immersed in finishing Mala Olor, the project that won the Finestres prize and will be published next year, acknowledges that "it remains a precarious sector , it's very difficult to make a living, but I'm lucky that the other illustration jobs I do or the classes I like, stimulate me and help me stay connected”. There is also, of course, the option of working directly in other markets with more readers and better advances; although neither she nor Berrocal have done it, it is a common route.
This is what Jaime Martín (l'Hospitalet, 1966) did, who has just presented Un fosc mantel (Norma) but since 2007 has worked directly for the Belgian publishing house Dupuis, "which pays me a decent price for my work ". "Making comics is a slow and hard activity, that's why I only publish one book every three years, I do the script, drawing, color and lettering myself and this forces me to manage the advances carefully to be able to live until the next project . I lead an austere life, but I push forward the projects I want, at my own pace, without pressure from the publisher. I could do another type of stories, there are more commercial products that publishing houses usually offer their authors, but I like to do more personal work, with which I feel fully identified".
Where growth has also been noticed is in female authorship, which is now around 20%, but there is a process underway and of rapid growth, because "putting the focus on female authors has promoted that other girls are "put them there, before there were no references, but the women were there, it's just that they weren't paid much attention to because it was a masculinized sector, I guess as much as others, because the world is sexist", says Hafid . Martín knows that "there are certainly more authors than when I started drawing comics in the eighties, but they are certainly fewer than what should be", but where he has seen the change is in the classes he takes at the Joso school: " 30 years ago there was not a single girl in a group of 20 students, and now there are more girls than boys, a fact that has been repeated for a few years, so in the near future we will see a significant change in this regard ".
If on Tuesday Marjane Satrapi explained that since she had no female references her model was Batman, yesterday Berrocal explained that "my first model of a lesbian relationship was Llobató from the X Patrol, and if women have often had to identify with heterosexual male role models, why shouldn't a guy calmly take on a story just because the protagonists are girls?”. Because labels, in the same way that they are useful for selecting tastes, can end up being a barrier, and Hafid agrees that "they may be unnecessary, but at the same time they serve to vindicate us".
Another issue that concerns the sector to some extent is the emergence of artificial intelligence, especially when generative models have been fed with copyrighted work. The four authors agree that, as Hafid says, "it is necessary to regularize and pay a fee for the authors", a fact that for Berrocal "will come when the big companies are the ones harmed, and it is already starting to happen now".
Díaz Canales warns that "it is obviously not a problem only for comics, but of a generalized scope, and the only solution can be to set limits because technology never goes backwards. Just as markets have been intervened with anti-monopoly laws, legislation will be needed to prevent abuses of power, but in the end, AI tools will be used by all of us”. According to Martín, "legislation must be made so that robots and AIs that eliminate jobs pay a tax that reverts to the people who are separated from the work activity. If this is not the case, we will end up building a completely dehumanized society, as is already happening". He is also concerned that "the public, due to an alleged use and abuse of AI, can become dirty to the point of not appreciating and valuing the human side of artistic creations, creations with motivations, concerns, loves and phobias that make them unique", he says. "People's eyes need to be educated" so they can distinguish the quality of things, says Hafid. Find the art. Berrocal, in fact, acknowledges: "I'm not too worried either, because the most industrialized product will be the biggest loser." As Martín concludes, "when most people don't care to know the special point of view offered by a human on any subject, everything will be lost".
